Would You Ever Rent Your Wedding Dress?

Your wedding day: the mere words alone are enough to conjure many women’s white-washed fantasies of the perfect day, the perfect man (hopefully), and, yes, the perfect dress. While there are lots of women who invest in their dresses as heirloom objects to be passed down to generations behind them, Rent the Runway is betting that there are plenty out there who want a more spendthrift option: renting your dress for your big day.

The designer rental site just for the first time launched bridal rentals online, including everything from big-moment baubles by jewelry designers like Ben-Amun, Tom Binns, and Kenneth Jay Lane, to white cocktail dresses (we assume) intended for the reception and party after the ceremony. And yes: actual wedding gowns are a part of the mix.

Photo: Rent the Runway

Designers like Nicole Miller, Erin Fetherston, Badgley Mischka, and Theia all feature their full-length white gowns in the new bridal section of Rent the Runway, with rental prices starting as low as $100. While buying a wedding dress to keep can run you into the multiple thousands of dollars, renting one seems to be much more wallet-friendly option. They even have veils!

To us, the economic benefits of renting a wedding dress make total sense, but from a more sentimental perspective, we’re not sure we’d want the dress for just a day or two. It seems like—if weddings are as important as everyone makes them out to be—the dress especially would be something we’d want to hang on to.